

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



D0011A ( )35A3 



.'/Wf 



-r^Aj 






r\A '~>r\r 





















1™ 






J LIBRARY OF CONGRESS.? 



}|hap.-£>.NL $opn S l,t |o.2.0.LO} 
J UNITED STATES OP AMERICA, j. 



tap 



^ti$4i 



1 " » n a 












^nS':^ 



»«w«w 



mmj^mmmmm^ 









^ ' ~ ^~ ~ - % \ - -J 

mmmmr 






A A AAA/ 












(Art /»/> 






&$&*$ 



waft * c • 






^i&ifo 



o & 

SOCI ET YISM 

i 

And Its Evils. 
the instrumentality 

OF 

Individuals and Churches 

IN 

THE WORLD'S EVANGELIZATION. 



BY A CHICAGOAN. 



CHICAGO: THE WESTERN NEWS COMPANY. 
NEW YORK: SHELDON & COMPANY, 

1871. 



1° 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1871, 

BY THE AUTHOR, 

In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



tf-tOl*/- 




PREFATORY. 



This is one of some thirteen Chapters of an unpublished 
Book, upon Elements of Power in Christian Life, — 
specially in the Ministry, illustrated and enforced by such 
in Jesus. It is issued singly and in advance, as an 
auxiliary to the sentiment, tending, in some portions of 
pioneer Sects, to rejection or reconstruction of missionary 
instrumentalities, hitherto employed outside of Churches 
to perform their work. Has not the hour arrived for the 
return of believers to the simplicity of the example of the 
Teacher, and His Apostolic Disciples, in the endeavor 
to execute His Commission ? 



The Author. 



Chicago, Sept. 15, 1871. 



SOCIETYISM AND ITS EVILS 



And Jesus having come, spoke to them, saving : All power was 
given unto me in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore, and disciple 
all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the 
Son, and of the Holy Spirit; teaching them to observe all things 
whatsoever I have commanded you. And, behold, I am with you 
alway, unto the end of the world. — MATTH. XXVIII : 18-20. 

He gave to each one according to his individual 

ability Be occupied in business till I come. — 

Matth. xxv: 15. Luke xix : 13. 

And He called to Him the twelve, and began to send them forth by 
twos. — Mark vi : 7. 

And Paul, having selected Silas, departed, having been committed 
by the brethren unto the grace of God. — Acts XV: 40. 

THE ORIGIN OF THE CHURCH. 

'HE commission to evangelize the world was given 
by Jesus to His disciples. Whether, they, who, 
at the first, w r ere thus impressively addressed, and 
solemnly charged, were an ecclesiastical organization, 
through which, successors, — single churches, to the end of 
time, would come to be like commissioned ; or, whether, 
they were an unorganized company of believers, cannot be 
determined from the sacred record. It is generally believed, 
that " the twelve" was a church formally instituted by 




6 Societyism and its Evils. 

Jesus Himself. The specification by Him of the sxxk^&td^ 
— church, assembly, company, — in the eighteenth of Mat- 
thew, as the last resort, the ultimate tribunal for investiga- 
tion and adjustment, when alienation and difficulty had 
arisen between brethren, and the use of the same term in 
the declaration to Peter, Matthew xvi., are thought to be 
confirmatory of this view. Others think, that such tech- 
nical ecclesia was not known until after the Ascension : 
that, the directions given were merely such general 
prescriptions as the Great Teacher might naturally give 
for the regulation of the personal intercourse of His 
disciples with each other, — having made Love the test 
of discipleship and the basis of all His requirements : 
that the term ecclesia was not employed by Him in 
the sense to which it came subsequently to be restricted 
in the New Testament, but in its loose ordinary accep- 
tation of a company — assembly: that these organized 
bodies grew spontaneously out of the social and the 
elective tendencies, the spiritual necessities of renewed 
natures, rather than from oral or written prescription : 
that in every community, where the Word of Jesus pre- 
vailed, and converts were made, His disciples would, thus 
prompted, naturally come together to sing His praises, to 
supplicate His divine direction, and, as a perpetual 
reminder, to celebrate, as He enjoined, the Memorial 
Supper: that the inspired apostles found it necessary, for 
the sake of order and purity, to prescribe rules for the 
existence and regimen of these bodies of believers. 

the commission to individuals and churches. 

This commission was unquestionably given to disciples, 
as individuals or as churches, — not to unbelievers — men 



The Commission to Individuals and Churches. *i 

in general. Not that, in doing good to the bodies and 
souls of men, there can be any monopoly claimed, on the 
part of any sect, society, class, or order of men, or of all 
combined. Jesus forbade it. Mark ix : 38-39. Luke 
ix: 49-50. It is forbidden in the nature of Goodness. 
The privilege is as free as air or sunshine, to believer and 
unbeliever alike. If any man is philanthropic, he is in 
sympathy with Jesus to that extent. Nor, does it follow 
that those who were " without," — the unevangelized, 
might not have responsibilities in this work ; but, because 
they would not have heart to take it up in consequence of 
their unrenewed state, — because, they would be destitute 
of grace which creates faith, — the basis of all hope of 
success, originates, impels, and sustains Christian action : 
because it would be spiritually impossible that such should 
enter upon it and persevere in it from Christly motives. 
They are, indeed, responsible for the destitution of that 
which they might possess, and, therefore, for all the good 
that might ensue from the possession. 

It is evident, that if Christian believers were required to 
come out of the world, and to organize themselves into 
ecclesias, the requisition was upon all. Hence, it does 
not seem probable, that Jesus issued the commission to 
such individual disciples only as might be impressed that 
it was their duty to undertake to execute it, and, those, 
in societies external to those — instituted, as is held, by 
Jesus Himself, or by His authority. The injunction, then, 
was, must have been to them, as churches, as well as to 
them as individuals. There is individual, and there is 
associate or combined responsibility in the world's evan- 
gelization. So far as the commands of Jesus can be 
comprehended, the latter must be in churches, or bodies 



8 Society ism and its Evils. 

composed altogether of their delegated representatives or 
messengers, if indeed, such are essential for the prosecu- 
tion of missions, and are permissible. If the assumption 
of such work, by such individual members as are moved to 
combine together without for its prosecution, — not as 
individuals, but as corporations, in which their individu- 
ality is blended, or distinctively lost, and personal 
responsibility apparently, though not in reality, sunk. — 
for no man can escape his personal accountability for the 
sanction given by the use of his name or of his influence 
in a corporation, — he cannot, in reality, lose it in 
societies, communities, or nations; — if the assumption o^ 
such work by such corporations, not recognized or amen- 
able as churches, is scripturally permissible, then they are 
not fettered by those regulations which Jesus prescribed 
for them in ecclesiastical life. They are bound only by 
their own notions of wisdom or policy. It is easy to per- 
ceive, from inevitable tendencies in human nature, abun- 
dantly exemplified in history, that there is nothing to 
hinder them from becoming in time as corrupt as other 
professedly benevolent organizations external to the 
churches, — as did the Society of Jesus, inimical to the 
spiritual freedom of recusant individuals, as well as dan- 
gerous to the interests of society at large. No power but 
divine, enforced through ecclesiastical restriction, can stay 
them from coming to be wielded by a few, — the ablest, the 
most sagacious, the aspiring, and self-seeking, — secretaries, 
boards, executive committees. Of necessity, the keenest 
in intellect, the subtlest student of human nature, the 
strongest in will, come to wield them, as by the will of 
one. 



The Origin of Societyism. 9 

THE ORIGIN OF SOCIETYISM. 

Ignatius Loyola, three centuries since, the founder 
of modern Society ism, was, so far as men can judge, a 
sincere Christian ; so were many if not most of his early 
associates. The end of -the means employed was certainly 
Christly ; it was nothing less than the christianization of 
the world. These early Jesuits were unquestionably self- 
denying, heroic. But what a potent enginery for evil the 
Society subsequently became through its irresponsibility to 
the churches, its constitutionally-required, as well as 
naturally-tending subjection to the will of a few or of one ! 

Doubtless, the origin of these Societies, among Protes- 
tants, as among Papists, grew out of the lethargy of the 
churches with respect to foreign missions, conjoined with the 
fact that the ambitious, the enterprising, the zealous, the 
self-seeking, found that they could not manipulate them with 
the facility that they could external bodies, voluntary, 
ecclesiastically irresponsible, and im trammeled. But the 
apathetic churches should have been quickened, purified, 
stimulated to take hold of their appropriate work, instead 
of being thus abandoned. 

Congregationalists inaugurated the grand foreign mis- 
sionary movement in the United States, three-score years 
since, which has been fruitful in such glorious results 
among the heathen. But, in the construction of instru- 
mentalities therefor, they unfortunately fastened on their 
churches a system of means, the eradication of whose roots 
from their ecclesiastical soil, with their interlacing fibres, 
or, even, their mere loosening, will require the assembling 
of more than one "National Conference" at Oberlin. 
To reconstruct, or to take the House of Lords out of the 
British Constitution, do the Commons find it easy? 



io Society isnt and its Evils > 

" Power 

Strong in possession, founded in old custom ; 
Power by a thousand tough and stringy roots 
Fix'd to the people's pious nursery faith. 

For time consecrates ; 

And what is gray with age becomes religion."* 

Baptists in this country, professionally, strict construc- 
tionists of New Testament teaching, and practice ; whose 
spiritual ancestry in the darkest ages of ecclesiastical 
history flamed out, according to the Waldensian symbol, 
'• lux lucetin tenebris / " who have ever contended earnestly 
for the independence of each local church, and its suffi- 
ciency to execute whatever was imposed upon it by its 
" Head ; " — Baptists, instead of beating out a simple track 
for themselves in the evangelizing work — in the line of 
their ecclesiastical polity, have been " followers " of their 
Congregational brethren, in that, which, is believed, is not 
" good. ' ' Their delegated foreign missionary organization 
passed by a questionable coup cV etat into a voluntary one, 
and independent of their churches — ecclesiastical metem- 
psychosis, the naturality of which, it never has been easy to 
comprehend. They have had, successively, also, their 
Home Mission, Bible and Publication Societies, and last 
of all, in as quick succession, the "Woman's Board." 
After the same manner was sent a " Deputation." Mis- 
sions were disrupted, and "crooked sticks" encountered. 
" God may be able to work with him, men cannot," said 
one. Timber springing out of such a soil will always be 
more gnarly than straight-grained and elastic. It is appre- 
hended, that if apostolic brethren at Jerusalem or Antioch 

* Schiller's Wallenstein. Coleridge. 



Usurpation of Church Work. 1 1 

had undertaken to lay hands on and to straighten Paul, 
they would have found him " crooked " also. 

These bodies have been composed of the elite of the 
churches, — in ability, culture, and enterprise, — embracing 
a large amount of their piety. Some of them have 
become colossal in structure and movement. They are as 
efficient, as mighty in "combination, in resources, — men 
and means, as ever was their great prototype. No assem- 
blages grander, more impressive, more inspiring, than those 
of the American Board ever convened. The atmosphere 
pervading them, at times, has been redolent of Heaven. 
Their results for the last half-century have been grand ; 
no achievements in the spiritual history of the world since 
Pentecost have been so wonderful. They enable the 
Christian to anticipate the glorious consummation of the 
mission and the work of Jesus, not only through faith, 
but through sight of what has been achieved. 

ITS USURPATION OF THE CHURCH. 

But serious evils, gigantic corruptions, have grown up 
with them, — the natural out-growth of their constitution. 
They overshadow with baleful influence the great good 
they have achieved. The hugest are close corporations ; 
they perpetuate themselves ; neither churches as such nor 
the great body of the sustaining people control them ; 
they are chiefly officered and wielded by a class, — the 
strongest of the clergy, and the co-operating laity led by 
them ; widows and other poor contributors who can only 
cast in mites, — whose alms and prayers prevail with God, 
have no potency in them, not even a paper or a sheep-skin 
certificate of life-membership. True : the Christly-moved 
need not, desire not such incitements, such ends to their 



12 Societyism and its Evils. 

giving. But the Societies need their prayers, influence, 
and co-operation. The amount of money annually to be 
disbursed ; the ramified system of agencies to be directed ; 
the multiform issues of the press to be sent out ; the 
direction of so many men and women ; are powers too 
extensive to be intrusted to a select or elect few; for, 
though they may be highly sanctified, they are ever fallible 
and frail ; and, they will inevitably come in time to be 
wielded by the one master-minded of them all, or by him 
who, though he may be intellectually inferior to others of 
his coadjutors, yet, from the authority vested in his official 
position, the facilities and opportunities thus afforded to 
consolidate it, is made more than a match for his asso- 
ciates, if he is disposed to play the master : and there 
are few with grace sufficient to resist the temptation to use 
or abuse the power placed within their grasp, especially if 
they are arbitrarily inclined, and every man, it is said, has 
a pope in him.* It is not believed that Jesus intended 
that so much power should be committed into the hands 
of a few men, — much less the one man who may, by 
superior intellectual strength, or what is more probable, 
by the facilities of position and opportunity, have worked 
his way to the head of his order. It is not believed He 
contemplated, that so comparatively few of the. brother- 
hood and sisterhood should assume the responsibility of 
conducting a work which, it is evident, He devolved upon 
all ; that such few should seclude this work to themselves, 
and entail it to their class and their elect ; that the dis- 
bursement of the funds contributed by believers in general; 
the various agencies of persons and the press ; above all, 
that the missionaries and their work should be wielded 

: ' Is thy servant a dog that he should do this great thing? — Hazael. 



Bondage of Missionaries. 1 3 

automatically by the will of boards, committees, secre- 
taries, — the head-centers and ecclesiastical generals of the 
organizations. It. is believed, that He would have every 
active soldier of His, who is evidently commissioned, go 
to the battle field, unfettered by the armor with which 
large-minded or narrow-minded officials would incase him ; 
but equipped with the weapons that nature, discipline, and 
grace had prepared for him, — left free to war in the way, 
and at the times, his genius and his sanctified judgment 
dictate ; that, if .he could not go formally commissioned 
by churches of which he may be a member, he might 
on his individual election and responsibility, as did Paul, 
and the earlier disciples, who appreciated the counsels of 
their brethren, as will all sincere believers; but who, 
whenever personal convictions pressed, knew no man after 
the flesh. These primitive disciples, when dispersed 
through persecution, went everywhere, preaching the 
Word, as they were individually impressed by natural or 
supernatural conviction, without waiting for the commission 
of their fallible brethren, who could not assume and exe- 
cute responsibilities exclusively personal and obligatory to 
them as individuals. 

BONDAGE OF MISSIONARIES. 

Many members of these Boards, and some of the 
Secretaries, have been among the best and the wisest of 
men, — memories of whom will ever be pleasant and fra- 
grant ; while there have been others, the savor of whose 
doings will not be so sweet-smelling. They may be great 
and good, but they can never assume the obligations of 
others, though they may be superior to them in mental or 
gracious endowments. What is the fact with respect to 



14 Society ism and its Evils. 

those ardent, earnest natures who surrender their bodies 
and souls, with their convictions, to the will and direction 
of Boards and Secretaries ? Do they not sink their per- 
sonal responsibility with respect to the kind and mode of 
their work, much as did a Catholic inferior to the will 
of his superior? Do they not go forth to the missionary 
field with intellectual and moral natures, with educational 
endowments, with spiritual convictions, cramped and 
trammeled ? Are they not subject to the espionage of the 
missionary coterie with which they may be associated ? 
If they are self-reliant by original make or through grace ; 
or, if they are conscientiously insubordinate to the cast, 
direction, and measures of the fallible Board, or still more 
fallible Secretary, thousands of miles afar ; are they not 

" It is a great misfortune to an age and to a community to have the 
young men growing up to understand, that the model men are those 
who hold Secretaryships in such institutions. I hope they will go to 
heaven. I think many of them will, so as by fire, — blessed provision ! 
blessed text ! Now there is so much of them, that they could scarcely 
get in ; but when all but the good in them is burned out, what is left 
will not be so much but that they can get it into a small space, and so 
escape into Heaven. But it is an unfortunate thing to have the rising 
generation think, that they are the model men, and that their miserable 
methods of administration are consistent with and are the out-play and 
development of true Christian manliness. It is a blight and a curse 
upon any community. A part of the duty of every man who preaches 
the Gospel is to warn his people against holding up such men and their 
doings as patterns for their children to follow, and I warn you against 
it." 

"The church is of no more account than a straw, except for the 
justice and the truth that are in it. When you have sacrificed real 
piety for the sake of saving the church, you have killed a man, and 
got a corpse. When you have sacrificed the moral ends for the accom- 
plishment of which an institution has been established, for the sake of 



Bondage of Missionaries. 1 5 

reported by this cote7-ie to the management at home ? 
Will they not, after humbling measures to secure submis- 
sion and repression have proved ineffectual. — if not 
summarily recalled and dismissed from the service, — will 
not their case be prudentially taken under advisement, and, 
at the proper time, if not peremptorily ordered home, be 
affectionately decoyed," and then sent into some distant 
section of the home field, to pine in silence and to die \ 
in fact, officially dishonored, disrobed as missionaries, 
as recalcitrant, non-conforming priests were formally 
degraded from their office, by stripping them of their 
sacerdotal vestments, and by the symbolic erasion of the 
original anointing? Is not such an end of a trustful and 
consecrated life very sad? Is it not excruciating to refined 
sensitive ones, as such devoted men and women are ? * 
Illustrations of this missionary degradation are abundant 

maintaining the institution itself, you have destroyed the fruit, and kept 
the husk — you have thrown away the kernel, and kept the shell." 

H. W. Beecher, Independent. June 7, i860. 

* " The member of the Society of Jesus was set to watch his com- 
rades, and his comrades are set to watch him. Each must report what 
he observes of the acts and dispositions of the other; and this mutual 
espionage does not end with the novitiate, but extends to the close of 
life. The characteristics of every member of the order are minutely 

analyzed, and methodically put on record It not only uses its 

knowledge to thrust into obscurity or cast out altogether those whom it 
discovers to be dull, feeble, or unwilling instruments of its purposes, 
bnt it assigns to every one the task to which his talents or his disposi- 
tion may best adapt him One great aim engrossed their lives. 

' For the greater glory of God ' — ad major em Dei gloriam — they would 
act or wait, suffer or die, yet all in unquestioning subjection to the 
authority of the superiors, in whom they recognized the agent of Divine 
authority itself.'' — Jesuits in Xorth America. Parkman. 



1 6 Societyism and its Evils. 

enough in the secret history of these societies. And such 
a course is deliberately justified by enlightened defenders, 
in able and liberal periodicals. With reference to such a 
case, presented by the sufferer himself, in the columns of 
such a paper, the editor declares: "We are entirely clear 
that the Prudential Committee of the Board has a perfect 
right to call home a missionary, on the mere ground of 
expediency, and without tabling charges against him, if it 
is found that there is any practical difficulty in the way of 
his usefulness. He may be a good and able man, and yet 
for some reason not accomplish what is desired on a par- 
ticular field. In one case, it may be poor health ; in 
another, inability to acquire the native language ; in a 
third, an unfortunate temperament ; in a fourth, lack of 
wisdom ; in a fifth, a peculiarity of measures or of 
opinions which prevents harmony in the mission. In such 
a case, the Prudential Committee, after patient inquiry, 
lasting sometimes over two years, is accustomed to retire 
a man from the field, and to do it in the quietest manner, 
for his own sake. They make no charges against his 
character, or his orthodoxy, for they have none to make. 
He simply does not suit them as an agent to do their 
work, and they drop him as kindly as possible, just as they 
would one of their agents at home : helpiug him, it may 
be, to find new employment. Why should they enter into 
a controversy with him, even if he is foolish enough to 
desire it ? They may sometimes err in a particular case, 
and thus lose a good missionary ; but the general policy 
is right." * 

* Chicago Advance. 



The Liberty Jesus Gave. 1 7 

THE LIBERTY JESUS GAVE. 

The course of the Master was somewhat different. He 
rebuked immediately and effectually where rebuke was 
needed. He was infallible. Boards are not. He was 
ever patient, charitable, tolerant with human infirmity. 
In the realm of the spiritual liberty provided for His fol- 
lowers, there is ample room for the by-play of every 
natural and gracious endowment, and, it may be added, 
for the aberrations of believers, — inseparable from their 
development. Violent eradication or repression by others 
like fallible and frail, — disposed to play the master or 
censor, — violent eradication or repression of what is 
deemed by them abnormal, unsightly, and unlovely in 
disciples, if it could be achieved, would result only in the 
destruction of individuality, and the paralysis of useful- 
ness. Let excellency and defect grow together unto their 
harvest; then, the wheat of the one will be gathered into 
the garner of its joy ; and the tare of the other into the 
fire of its inevitable sorrow. Time, light, reflection, gra- 
cious instruction, and reproof, will rectify the deflection 
of the consecrated mind and heart, round off the angu- 
larities of nature, and symmetrize christian character. 
Those, which are ever open for the in-dwelling of the 
Spirit, will never fail to be guided by Him into all Truth. 
Because Peter was presumptuous, and the sons of Zebedee 
vengeful, did the Master cast them out? — recall their 
commission ? — even suspend them ? He dealt with disci- 
ples as with children. Thus God, the Father, deals with 
all in His providence. Thus, should all earthly and 
spiritual parents or guardians, — with theirs, and their 
wards. 



1 8 Society ism and its Evils. 

When the contention between Barnabas and Paul was 
so sharp, that they departed asunder one from the other, 
because the former " determined to take with them " his 
kinsman Mark, and the latter thought it not good to do 
so, because Mark departed from them from Paraphilia, and 
went not with them to the work,— an inefficient — or recalci- 
trant, — "crooked stick," — "broken tooth," — "foot out of 
joint," in the view of Paul, did the brethren of the 
church at Antioch, or at the "head-quarters " of Jerusalem, 
undertake to declare, that frail Mark should not go at all 
to the heathen ? did Paul himself, who evidently 
was the stronger party, and carried with him the majority 
of the sentiment, and the confidence of the brethren in 
Antioch, for it is stated, that he departed with Silas in 
the place of Mark, '- being recommended" literally 
/mving been given over, or committed, ' ' by the brethren 
unto the grace of God," — izapadofteiq tjj z&piri too Oeou 
r )-<> rojy aozAuw*; ; — did Paul, as the great apostle to the 
Gentiles, undertake to wield his overshadowing influence 
with his brethren, to induce them to put the ban upon 
peccable Mark, and forbid him to depart from Antioch 
to a mission? Peter and Paul, also, differed essentially 
on important topics of faith and practice. It. is evident 
that the apostolic missionaries were a self-reliant, inde- 
pendent class of individuals, as all Godly, Christly- 
educated men will, must be The missionary Boards of 
our time could not have manipulated or repressed such. 
While they, doubtless, would have respected and given due 
heed to the counsels of their stay-at-home brethren, they 
would have given primary and determining heed to the 
monitions within — through the Spirit and the Grace of 
God. 



Cn scriptural Basis. 19 

ITS BASIS PECUNIARY. 

Some of these Boards are close corporations, self-elected, 
self-electing, self-perpetuating ; filling their own vacancies, 
instead of devolving their original construction and sub- 
sequent composition upon their constituency of the 
churches, — the Societies themselves which they arrogantly 
cap, and the churches which they professedly represent, 
and in whose name, when they find it necessary, they 
declare, they act. 

The constitutions of the Societies require the payment 
of a specified amount of money, with or without the pos- 
session of Christian character or church membership, as 
the condition of membership in them. A beautifully 
engraved certificate of life or annual membership, and the 
appearance of one's name in the Annual Reports are 
secured. Unhallowed motives, love of position, — " chief 
seats," right or left hand places, — can but be touched, 
appealed to, developed, educated, strengthened; — aspira- 
tions which Jesus emphatically rebuked, and strove ever to 
repress, — to turn them into channels of service, that there 
they might find satiation. 

" Whosoever will be great among you. let him be your 
minister : and whosoever will be chief among you, let 
him be your servant." — Matthew xxv. Mark x. 

As certain of these Boards thus declare their indepen- 
dency of. and irresponsibility to the Societies which they 
head ; so do the Societies to the churches, for the principles 
of their organization, and for their administration, — the 
measures employed in the prosecution of their recognized 
divine ends. Inability to give is a bar to membership. 
The poor widow who may be rich in faith and good works, 



io Society ism and its Mvils. 

cannot secure to herself the beautiful certificate, if she 
desire it, though she cast into the missionary treasury all 
that she pecuniarily has, — her "two mites;" while the 
Emperor of China, or his chief Mandarin, may purchase 
with their silver " a good degree " of a life-directorship. 
They are compelled to stand " without," who have only a 
prayer, a word, or a psalm to offer, — a holy life to lay 
upon the altar. 

ITS DESTRUCTION OF INDIVIDUALITY. 

They become a terror to independency of thought, — 
of individual expression, by their power to combine and 
wield opinion. Their zeal, energy, enterprise, piety, 
never equal that of the average of their members. The 
conservative prevail in them through their vis inertice. 
The centripetal gains upon the centrifugal. The tendency 
is to a dead center. The individuality of those who 
would be in good repute in them is lost. Slavishness of 
opinion, subserviency of spirit, are induced. Only a cer- 
tain class of minds, — of temperaments ; the pliable, the 
slow-moving, the conservative, or those who choose to be 
subtle, can rise in them to position or influence. The 
retiring, the unaspiring, the unostentatious, the fearless, 
the single-minded, and straight-forward, are ignored ; 
the independent by constitution or through grace, the 
conscientiously recusant, are tabooed. To the first only 
is the eye directed for official successors by those in 
power ; and they alone are kept in training for the pur- 
pose at the anniversaries, in the composition of committees, 
or in the moving of controlling resolutions previously 
prepared. Such institutions accord well with the Papacy, 
from which they sprang, or with Episcopacy — off-shoot of 



The Ministry Robbed for its Officers. 21 

the same, and, to a certain extent, with Presbyterianism, 
which, more consistently, prefers the use of church boards 
elected by assemblies, made up of accredited delegates 
from churches, synods, and presbyteries, to that of organ- 
izations unelected by its churches, and irresponsible to 
them or it. But they do not accord with Independency 
and Congregationalism, where the will of the majority is 
supposed ever to prevail, and which are professedly the 
the democracy of sects. 

The missionaries, themselves sent out, come, in time, to 
be of the pliant sort. Those differently constituted or 
educated are discouraged. If, by some oversight or mis- 
taken judgment of character, unmanageable ones have got 
into the mission field, as has been previously said ; efforts 
are made to get them home on some pretence, or they are 
goaded into resignation, unless they are too strong to be 
crushed out ; — then, — it is sad to state, — efforts, some- 
times, have been made to destroy their reputation at home. 
Of one such, a missionary Secretary remarked: " God 
may be able to work with him, but men can't." He 
should have said : If God can work with him, men can, 
I can, and I ought. Once home, such unpliant laborers 
retire to private station, or secular employment, or are 
exiled through stress of circumstances to some distant 
portion of the home field, where the beautiful of life to 
them having vanished ; losing heart and hope, they are 
left to pine and die, as hopelessly, as sadly, as ever did a 
refractory priest in the dungeons of the Inquisition. 

THE MINISTRV ROBBED FOR ITS OFFICERS. 

They are chiefly officered by clergymen, and sometimes 
by returned missionaries, who, if they have been called to 



22 Societyism and its Evils. 

the ministry, and that among the heathen, should have 
given their lives to it. If they could not find churches to 
support them, they should do as did Paul, support them- 
selves by brain work or hand work in some secular 
avocation, and gird themselves to the work of the Lord 
as opportunity opens. 

Would Paul have stood so pre-eminently distinguished 
through the ages for Christian heroism, and have 
bequeathed to humanity such a sublime example of self- 
abnegation and disinterestedness for its adornment and 
christianization, if, after having spent scores of years 
among the heathen, until he had become acclimated \ had 
acquired such familiarity with their tongue, as to commu- 
nicate to them in it the wonderful works of God, with 
the messages of salvation ; had measurably overcome the 
multifarious obstacles that confront a missionary in the 
daring, and humanly forlorn attempt to eradicate a 
religious belief of ages, and to substitute therefor an 
exotic and an antagonistic creed ; would he, after a fare- 
well of weeping loved and loving ones, exclaiming : 
" What mean ye to weep and to break my heart ? " — then, 
flaming through the Eastern hemisphere, with the avowal 
of being ready for a yoke of service or an altar of sacri- 
fice ; would he have continued to be a burning and a 
shining light through all succeeding times, if he had 
returned to Jerusalem or Antioch, to spend the balance of 
his days comfortably as a Secretary or Agent of a Society? 
"No man, having put his hand to the plough, and 
looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God." — Luke 
ix : 62. 

It is apprehended that the religionists of Elijah's time 
did not come up with much alacrity, if they came at all, 



// Breeds Corruption. 23 

to his pecuniary support ; nor, is it believed he sought for 
it, or cared for it, or would have had it on conditions. — 
of keeping back a part of his messages, or of toning them 
down to suit the average sanctification of his hearers. He 
confronted kings and queens, unblenchingly, as he would 
the meanest subject of their reign. He would not be a 
dumb dog, a time server, or a conservative. He was a 
radical, as all divinely commissioned preachers will be, 
though they may speak the Truth in varied tones of Love. 
Once his heart failed him. He had his hour of weakness 
and despair, as all men will sometimes have, howe'er 
intrepid. Elijah thought all was lost ; that there was no 
hope for Israel ; that he, only, of the unseduced, unter- 
rified, remained ; that courage, fidelity, further constancy, 
were to no purpose. He was no better than his fathers. 
He was human. He fled, not through cowardice, but 
through despair. When the pot of herbs failed, God fed 
him through ravens ; gave him a new vision. All true 
prophets must live and fare very much as did Elijah. 

IT BREEDS CORRUTIOX. 

But their official position educates them to be managers, 
so that, in time, they become as accomplished in all the 
subtlety of official craft, as ever did a professional poli- 
tician. The accumulated funds of Book Concerns, Bible, 
Tract and Publication Societies, are means of corruption 
to those who have to do with their disbursement. They 
unwarrantably interfere with individual enterprises, by 
their ability to use funds — not contributed for such pur- 
pose — to undersell the market, at or below the cost of 
manufacture, — a violation of the equitable principles of 
business, to which, it is not believed, the direct executors of 



24 Society ism and its Evils. 

the Saviour's Commission are ever called. Their strength 
is from above, not from beneath. It is not so much 
money that they want, as the invigoration, illumination 
and guidance of the Holy Spirit. God will pour money 
enough into their coffers, if they will trust Him — restrain 
and concentrate their endeavors, as He has limited and 
restrained. If money adequate, as they compute, does 
not come, and with the speed they aspire for, let them 
wait. God waited four thousand years before He sent 
His Son. They are not responsible for the quick or tardy 
evangelization of men, only for the faithful discharge of 
what is committed to their trust. They must go no faster 
than as He opens the way. They are agents, not princi- 
pals, — executors, not legislators, — servants, not Master. 
Their vocation is single, specific. God will work, over- 
rulingly, through commercial enterprises, and all the 
avenues of trade, for the realization of His grand designs, — 
is combining all things to converge to the glorious end. 
But the special requisition upon those whom He has called 
to execute His gospel Commission, is to preach it, — to 
give themselves to it as they are prepared by nature and 
grace; some to teach, some to preach, some to pray, some 
to sing, some to write, the many to give as the Lord has 
prospered them. They can't serve God and Mammon at 
the same time. If they would serve Mammon while they 
are serving God, for the sake of serving Him, let them 
become incorporated under another name. That is not 



Its Dangerous Power over Churches. 25 

God's specific, His means, in this His strange work. It is 
the wisdom of the world, which He will ever confound.* 

ITS DANGEROUS POWER OVER CHURCHES. 

They have come to wield a dangerous power over the 
churches — in the selection and retention of their pastors, 
in the direction of their spiritual forces, and their pecuni- 
ary contributions. The Secretaries and Agents " have a 
passion for" their calling. They are expected to have it 
in fact, or professionally- They will magnify it, of course ; 
they will not fail to endeavor to obtain a shaping and 
a controlling influence over the great sources of their 
material and spiritual prosperity. They will be conscien- 
tious in it, and, with their professions, it might be 
expected, they would be zealous and politic ; nor can they 
be reprehended for it, having such confidence in the abso- 
lute as well as relative importance of their societies. 
Their brethren should not lead them into temptation. 
To acquire such influence here, there and everywhere, will 
be their constant study. They will have time for it, while 
the pastors and the members of their churches are absorbed 
in their various religious and secular occupations. Secre- 
taries, in large, cities particularly, have been known to 
settle and unsettle pastors, as these pastors have favored 
or disfavored their pet organizations. Independent and 
self-reliant, yet devoted and true ministers of the Lord 

* Because the foolishness cf God is wiser than men ; and the weakness of God is 
stronger than men. For ye see your calling, brethren. . . . God hath chosen 
the foolish things of the world to confound the wise ; and God hath chosen the weak 
things of the world to confound the things which are mighty : and base things of the 
world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, and things which are not, 
to bring to nought things that are : That no flesh should glory in His presence. — 
1 Cor. i. 25-29. 

2 



26 Society ism and its Evils. 

Jesus, have often found it difficult to obtain a foothold in 
the confidence of churches needing pastors, through the 
baleful influence of some Secretary or Agent interposed. 
The churches themselves are drilled to become systematic 
contributors at stated periods during the year, — inferior 
auxiliaries to all these exterior instrumentalities, — deemed 
superior to the New Testament organization. Standing 
committees are constituted in many churches, to solicit of 
each individual member a contribution for each of them ■ 
and any one who refuses, — save those who are compelled to, 
from their well-known poverty, — may expect to lose caste 
with brethren and sisters, notwithstanding they may be 
conscientious in declining, believing it their privilege, as 
well as duty, to be the almoners of their own benefactions, 
at such times, in such unrevealed ways, to such objects or 
persons — specified or unspecified, as they may choose, — 
providentially thrust upon their attention with their im- 
pressive appeals, as if Heaven itself had brought about the 
junction to bless not only him that takes, but him that 
gives. 

Thus, through this web of influence woven about them, 
instead of being sovereign instrumentalities themselves in 
the world's evangelization, under the lead of their Master, 
the churches come to be inferior and secondary, tributary 

They have usurped the commission and powers of the Christian 
Church; they have invented and imposed new rules and terms of Chris- 
tian association ; they have concentrated Christian influence, to a great 
extent, in the. narrow circle of a few self-created managers; and, in 
consequence of the new principles they have adopted, and the new 
modes of association they have prescribed, they have constructed the 
frame of religious society extensively upon a new basis, — upon a basis 
which constitutes themselves the source of law, and of all economical 
measures. — Protestant Jesuitism. Harper Bros. 



Its Control of the Denominational Press. 27 

and auxiliary to these exterior ones — offspring of the 
wisdom of men. 

ITS CONTROL OF THE DENOMINATIONAL PRESS. 

The denominational " organs" are virtually under their 
control. Such inducements of a pecuniary and official 
character, supplemented with the hope of enlarged useful- 
ness, are offered, that ministers having talent for manage- 
ment and skill in finance, are generally employed to 
officer them. Becoming officially head-centres, generals 
of their order, their espionage necessarily extends every- 
where from the "Rooms" of their Rome. It is in their 
power to interfere seriously with the weal of any recusant 
Journal, which refuses to become the willing and subservi- 
ent instrument of the enterprises they represent. What 
good man will neglect to wield every potency available to 
promote the well-being of a cause he believes to be good, 
and which he has espoused ? Ambitious self-seekers, of 
course, will never fail to do it. The conductors of these 
" organs" know very well, that it is as much as the life 
of their enterprises is worth, to dare to question their scrip- 
tural authorization, or the wisdom and economy of their 
measures. There is a constant and unremitting effort to 
link every other denominational interest as ligaments to 
their support ; above all, as pecuniary ducts to the reser - 

By an artful multiplication of societies, devoted apparently to differ- 
ent objects, but all swayed by the same leaders, and all intended to 
bear against a hated party, as cruel a persecution may be carried on in 
a free country as in a despotism. Public opinion may be so combined 
and influenced, and brought to bear on odious individuals or opinions, 
that it will be as perilous to think and speak with manly freedom, as 

if an inquisition were open before us They create tyrants as 

effectually as standing armies. — Dr. Channing. 



28 Society ism and its Evils. 

voirs of their charities. Funerals of distinguished mem- 
bers, belonging rather to humanity and Christianity than 
to a sect, — -to a denomination than to societies, — have 
been manipulated, so as to be made tributary to such a 
result. Not long since, in a notice of such a funeral 
appearing in a distant Journal, after a specification of the 
pall-bearers, it was added : thus was this, that and the 
other great interest of the denomination represented on 
the occasion ! 

Men don't need any more instrumentalities for their 
evangelization than divine wisdom has provided. All 
that is needed, is to fill up roundly, symmetrically, com- 
pletely, the New Testament Ideal according to the New 
Testament Real : that every member of these churches be 
filled with the Holy Spirit, charged with energy, zeal, 
wisdom, love ; that he execute with fidelity that which 
God has committed to his trust, in the gift of original 
endowment, or, of subsequent culture : of providential 
bestowment, or, in the solemn juncture of opportunity. 
" To each one according to his individual ability ! " 
E/.aaro) xard ttjv Tdiav duyafiiv. " Be occupied in business 
till I come ! " Tlpayixarebaaad-e iwg ep%ofiat. 

Associations accumulate power in a few hands ; . . . a few men 
rule, a few do everything ; .... a few leaders can send their voices 
and spirit far and wide, and, where great funds are accumulated, can 
league a host of instruments, and, by menace and appeals to interest, 
can silence opposition .... An influence is growing up, through 
widely spread societies, altogether at war with the spirit of our institu- 
tions, and which, unless jealously watched, will gradually but surely 
encroach on freedom of thought, of speech, and of the press — Dr. 
Channing, 



Instrumentality of Individuals. 29 



THE INSTRUMENTALITY OF INDIVIDUALS. 

The propagation of Christianity, through human instru- 
mentality under God, is a simple business, as is revealed. 
His grace is sovereign, and independent of means. But 
He chooses to employ such means. It is not complicated 
nor needs any complexity. It lies through the influence, 
the light, the example, of renewed hearts, of sanctified 
lives — consistent with the profession made. It is in the 
consecration and faithful use of all gifts, with whatever a 
disciple is endowed \ the improvement of every oppor- 
tunity for doing good, — nothing more, nothing less. He 
has given to each child of His, each Christian disciple, 
his peculiar sphere of labor, according to his natural and 
gracious gifts, — his culture and providential circum- 
stances. There is a niche to be filled in the up-rising 
Temple of God by every individual gift however humble. 
There can be none which is not needed to complete the 
divine structure, and to make it symmetrical from the 
massive foundation to the vanishing point of spire; 
whether of prayer, exhortation, singing, teaching or 
writing \ whether of legislative, administrative, agricul- 
tural, mechanical, mercantile, literary, scientific, artistic 

The initiation of all wise or noble things, comes, and must come, 
from individuals ; generally at first from some one individual. 

. . . the individual's own mode of laying out his existence is the 
best, not because it is the best in itself, but because it is his own mode 
.... different persons also require different conditions for their 
spiritual development ; and can no more exist healthily in the same 
moral, than all the variety of plants can in the same physical atmos- 
phere and climate. The same things, which are helps to one person 
towards the cultivation of his higher nature, are hindrances to another. 

Mill on Liberty. 



30 Society ism and its Evils. 

or financial skill. Did each one know his gift, apprehend 
his mission, find his sphere of activity, and occupy with 
fidelity, encroaching never upon the sphere of any other, 
there would be as much order, harmony and efficiency in 
spiritual movements among men as there is in the material 
heavens, — noiseless, harmonious, ever moving on in their 
sublime unity to the accomplishment of the divine end. 
As there would be no necessity for civil governments, if 
every individual was self-governed ; so in the Kingdom 
of Grace, there would be no need for societies external 
to the churches, certainly not for close corporations, 
self-elect and self-electing, for the execution of the Com- 
mission. They might be useful to stimulate, combine, 
concentrate and intensify individual zeal, to induce 
liberal benefactions to the common object of Love, — since 
men naturally incline to the use of the huge, the intricate, 
the complicate, the pretentious, and the ostentatious in 
attempting to do good, — for they strike the imagination, 
instead of the simple ways of the Lord, as prescribed. 
They have more faith in the grand or mystic flourish of 
some distinguished prophet's hand over the leprous sin of 
the world, than in the direct and immediate execution of 
the simple prescription of the Almighty Himself: " Go 
wash in Jordan seven times and thou shalt be clean." 
Numbers are magnetic and potent. Individualism — indi- 

It is not by wearing down into uniformity all that is individual in 
themselves, but by cultivating it and calling it forth, within the limits 
imposed by the rights and interests of others, that human beings 
become noble and beautiful objects of contemplation. 

Mill on Liberty. 

Self-assertion is one of the elements of human worth, as well as 
self-denial . — Sterling. 



Instrumentality of Individuals. 31 

vidual action, varied as the diversity of gifts and spheres 
of activity, it is believed, is more in accordance with the 
constitution of men and with the teachings of Jesus, who 
imposed personal obligations, and most impressively con- 
joined with them their consequent responsibility. He, 
indeed, never proscribed union for the prosecution of His 
divine work ; nor did He ever prescribe it to the super- 
session of individual freedom. He devolved that work 
on each and every one of His disciples, and then sent 
them out, saying to them, as such, " freely ye have received, 
freely give." Societyism comes, in time, to say: "I 
give you thus much; don't you give anymore." Who 
shall dare to restrain and to limit the gifts, the grace, and 
the providences of God, otherwise, than He has limited 
and restrained ? 

Every Christian, then, has some gift to use, some call 
to heed. If -he is called, as he believes, to the heathen, it 
is his privilege to go, with or without the consent of 
others. Their judgments are not the rule of his conscience, 
or of his conduct, in the last decision. True, the fact that 
he is not able to secure the approval of his brethren of the 
same church, as to his intellectual, educational and spiritual 
fitness for such mission, should lead him to prayerful 
re-examination and close scrutiny of his supposed qualifi- 
cations and motives. If he goes with the approval of the 
church of which he is a member, let it formally commis- 
sion him, if it will, but let it not fetter him by arbitrary 
restrictions, positive requirements and prohibitions, other- 
Whatever crushes individuality is despotism, by whatever name it 
may be called. 

... It is only the cultivation of individuality which produces, or 
can produce, well-developed human beings. — Mill on Liberty. 



32 Society ism and its Evils. 

wise than those which Jesus prescribed. He is called to 
liberty, as each and every one of it is called to his. His 
Master is his lawgiver. He, in conscience, in grace, through 
the Spirit, is a law unto himself. There must be trust. 
Trust in God, in His Spirit, His Grace, His Providence, 
working through the mind and heart of the brother, to 
guide him. If the formal commission of a Board, or a 
committee in or out of churches, be essential to constitute 
one a missionary, authorized to preach the Gospel at home 
or abroad, which, it is believed, is not ; let that Board be 
satisfied, first, as to his qualifications, before it sends him 
forth ; but, if satisfied : who has authorized it to trammel 
him in the use of that liberty which his Master gave him 
when he first became His disciple, before the consecrating 
hands of men were laid upon him ? It should trust some, 
at least, to the influences of the Holy Spirit, and the 
promised presence of the Master Himself, conjoined with 
the providences of God to move and guide him wisely. 
If he be a man of God, he will give due heed to the 
suggestions and the advice of brethren, proportionate to 
their gifts, experience, and knowledge of his circumstances. 
But, it is again urged, who has authorized any to fetter his 
mind, or heart, or conscience, or judgment by arbitrary 
restrictions? Would members of these Boards — pastors 
of churches at home, think it just, wise or expedient to be 
thus fettered by their deacons or elders, or by committees 
afar off, because originally they were sent out into the 

— One good action, springing from our own minds, performed from 
a principle within, performed without the excitement of an urging and 
approving voice from abroad, is worth more than hundreds which 
grow from mechanical imitation, or from the heat and impulse which 
numbers give us. — Dr. Channing. 



Instrumentality of Individuals. 33 

harvest field under their advisement ? They — churches 
or their representatives, can counsel, can pray, can 
rebuke in brotherly love, when he manifestly errs or sins ; 
withdraw their fellowship, when he is irreclaimable from 
dangerous error, or from immoral life. Thus, there is a 
limit to their responsibility, and there it ends. 
The missionary must 

" alone determine for himself 

What he himself alone doth understand ! 
Well, therein he does right, and will persist in't, 
Heaven never meant him for that passive thing 
That can be struck, and hammer' d out to suit 
Another's taste and fancy. 

* -x- - * * * 

It goes against his nature — he can't do it. 
He is possessed by a commanding spirit, 
And his too is the station of command, 
And well for us it is so ! There exist 
Few fit to rule themselves, but few that use 
Their interests intelligently. — Then 
Well for the whole, if there be found a man 
Who makes himself what nature destined him. 

The uncommon, the sublime, must seem and be 
Like things of everyday. But in the field, 
Ay, there the Present Being makes itself felt 
The personal must command, the actual eye 
Examine. If to be the chieftain asks 
All that is great in nature, let it be 
Likewise his privilege to move and act 
In all the correspondencies of greatness. 
The oracle within him, that which lives, 
He must invoke and question — not dead books, 
Not ordinances, not mould-rotted papers.""* 

• Schiller's Wallenstein. Coleridge. 
2* 



34 Society ism a?id Us Evils. 

When members of a church are impressed that it is their 
duty to devote themselves to Christian labor among the 
heathen, and they desire to secure, in advance, the 
approval of their brethren, with their pledge of material 
support, — not having confidence to go into the field solely 
on their individual motion, and to cast themselves on the 
providence of God for sustenance and preservation, as 
did the Apostles; those who are called to purely secular 
avocations, and have confidence in the character and 
qualifications of the candidate for missionary service, can 
give directly to his maintenance without any intermediate 
agency \ the church itself, if it will, can commission and 
send forth, and pledge itself, to more or less of a material 
sustenance. Many prospered ones in the churches could 
each support a missionary, send and receive correspond- 
ence, remit their own contributions, or employ some 
trustworthy brother at a financial center to do it for 
them, without any discount for his service. Two or 
three in the same church, two or three churches, if neces- 
sary, could unite, for the support of one missionary. 
Over this bond of union between the missionary and his 
supporters, would pass and repass the electric fire of Love. 
Would it ever cease to burn, at either extremity, if grace 
through Jesus Christ was there ? Never ! If the indi- 
vidual supporters were willing to honor the instrumentality 

— Generally speaking, we can do most good by individual action, 
and our own virtue is incomparably more improved by it. It is vastly 
better that we should give our own money with our own hands, from 
our own judgment, and through personal interest in the distresses of 
others, than that we should send it by a substitute. Second-hand 
charity is not as good to the giver or receiver, as immediate. 

Dr. Channmg. 



Instrumentality of Individuals. 35 

which Jesus and His Apostles, at the first, employed, 
they could give to the church, for the special missionary 
purpose, as the Lord had prospered them; the church 
could consecrate and send forth to the harvest field the 
man of God evidently called to it, and remit the support 
— as before; so that, the widow who had only "two 
mites," or he who had still less, — nothing of a pecuniary 
value, "only a prayer" could jointly participate ; each 
would stand over against the other, — the mites over the 
larger gift ; the prayer over the munificent bequest. 
Curious questioners and ambitious self-seekers could afford 
to wait until the revelations of the eternal world, to learn 
which proved the most effectual, — "only a prayer" of a 
poverty-stricken one, the mites of the widow, or the 
"ten talents" of the "good and faithful servant." 
"Having, then, gifts, differing according to the grace 
that is given us; " " as every man hath received the gift, 
let him minister the same one to another as good stewards 
of the manifold grace of God." — Romans xii. 1 Peter iv. 
But, brethren desire to come together from afar, to see 
each other in the flesh, to take each other by the hand, to 
sing, pray, and stimulate each other to love and good 
works. Let them come every year and have a Pentecostal 
season. Let them be simple assemblages of brethren, 
mass meetings of believers — delegated or undelegated, — 
annual or semi-annual, for prayer, praise, and exhortation; 
needing only a presiding officer, a secretary, and a treas- 
urer, pro tempore. These might take the form of local 

— Only through diversity of opinion is there, in the existing state of 

human intellect, a chance of fair play to all sides of the truth 

Truth would lose something by the silence of dissentients. 

Mill on Liberty. 



36 Society ism and its Evils. 

Associations, of State Conventions, of National Confer- 
ences, without any legislation, or assumption of the work 
devolved upon the churches. Committees might be 
needed to express orally, or in writing, the sentiments or 
the emotions of the assemblage, as one might be selected 
on special seasons during the progress of the meetings, to 
offer prayer to God on its behalf. If it was not expedient 
or economic, for each individual contributor to remit his 
offering to the person or the cause, — object of benefac- 
tion ; or, — in the case of foreign missions, to purchase 
and to forward a draft to the distant field of labor, which, 
it is believed, would be far more expedient and economic, 
more blessed in reflex influence on the donor, — bringing 
the giver and the given to, in the closest possible contact, 
than to employ others to do it j some competent and 
reliable brother might be entrusted, at financial centers, 
thus to remit, and to report therefor, directly to each 
individual or church contributor ; and not to intermediate 
societies. Where would be the necessity for the creation 
of Boards, Executive Committees, and Secretaries, to tram- 
mel the individuality of missionary laborers, — still more, 
their individual consciences ? When individual Christians 
were impressed that it was their duty to go to the heathen, 
and they went forth, sustained by the promises and the 
providences of God, with the co-operating assistance of 
their friends who had faith in them, what concern would 
it be of any or of all, — only to bid them GoD-speed, and 
to help them? If individual churches, single or com- 

— Unity of opinion, unless resulting from the fullest and freest 
comparison of opposite opinions, is not desirable, and diversity not an 
evil, but a good, until mankind are much more capable than at present 
of recognizing all sides of the truth. — Mill o?i Liberty. 



Instrumentality of Individuals. 37 

bined, should, on their sole instance, commission and send 
forth into the harvest field laborers, and sustain them in 
it; what other churches, or what societies, great or little, 
should undertake to frustrate the grace of God in it ? 
Would not such development of the missionary spirit and 
action be more in accordance with the precepts and prac- 
tice of Jesus and His Apostles ? If churches could so 
trust candidates for missionary service, as to be induced 
to set them apart, consecrate, and officially send them 
forth, they ought to trust them, — the overruling God, and 
the guiding Spirit, — while they are in the harvest field. 
If the missionaries are men of God, they will crave the 
prayers of their brethren at home, and seek their counsel 
when they feel the need of it. Why should they be super- 
vised by a few, thousands of miles afar, — ignorant of their 
circumstances, — with temperaments, mental structure, 
mental and* spiritual habits, — diverse from theirs? Why 
should they be compelled to run the evangelizing car in 
ruts, — effete, it may be, pedantically prescribed by eccle- 
siastical superiors? * Can't brethren at home trust God to 
guide His chosen ones whom He has sent forth? Can't 
they pray for these missionaries, and thus relieve their 
personal anxieties about them? Can't they write affec- 
tionate letters of solicitude, of warning, of brotherly 
counsel, and admonition, if need be, — unauthoritative and 
unofficial, except when they have been sent out and are 
sustained by churches? Having done all this, have they 
not reached the limits of their responsibility? Did the 
church in Jerusalem, or that in Antioch, trammel Paul 

* A bureaucracy always tends to become a pe dan toe racy. — Mill on 
Representative Govern ment. 



38 Society ism and its Evils, 

and Silas, or Paul and Barnabas, by arbitrary directions, 
restrictive or permissive, as they went from place to place? 
Did they not commit the apostles, their work and the 
modes of doing it, as became necessary, to the supervisory, 
overruling, and directing Grace of God ? Did they not 
expect, and were they not content, that it should be so ; 
that the Apostles should use the liberty of plan and 
achievement, to which, as the children of God, and the 
disciples of Jesus, they were called ? All the instructions 
they received, that are on record, were: " They 
departed;" — "being recommended," literally, as has 
been before noted, having been given over, — " committed " 
"by the brethren unto the grace of God." The language is 
significant, and the example authoritative. When the lord 
of the servants distributed among them his talents for use, 
or the nobleman his pounds, did either of them appoint 
any number of their fellow servants to prescribe the modes 
in which each should use them ? Did they not commit to 
each as individuals, and thus intimate, that they would 
hold them to strict personal individual account for the 
use of the trust ? Were not all the declarations and illus- 
trations of Jesus so constructed and directed, as to give 
the greatest emphasis and effectiveness possible to this 
teaching ? Did He purpose to evangelize the world by 
corporations ? Admitting, as all must admit, that these 
societies, during the last half-century, have done a grand 
kind and amount of work, — the grandest since the 
Apostles, — must it not also be admitted, that it has been 

— The object " toward which every human being must ceaselessly 
direct his efforts, and on which especially those who design to influence 
their fellow men must ever keep their eyes, is the individuality of 
power and development.' 1 — Humboldt. Quoted in Mill on Liberty. 



Instrumentality of Individuals. 39 

thus done, much to the cost and to the absorption of the 
individuality of participants ? and, what is more serious 
and detrimental^ to the loss of the recognition and educa- 
tion of individual responsibility? True: Mark represents 
Jesus, as sending forth His disciples, at the first, in pairs; 
and the Apostles subsequent to His death thus went 
together ; still, they went forth as individuals, though in 
couples; neither their individuality, nor personal respon- 
sibility, were blended and distinctively lost in the unity 
of the participated work. Provision was thus made to 
meet their social necessities, that strength, comfort, and 
stimulation might be mutually imparted under the 
inevitable difficulties, dangers, and discouragements of the 
way. 

There being no necessity, as has been urged, let the 
disciples of Jesus no longer come together in the compli- 
cation of machinery, — wheels within wheels of annual and- 
life members ; of boards, executive committees and secre- 
taries ; of synods, and presbyteries, and judicatories; 
to fritter away time in the discussion of overtures, and 
deliverances, canons, and endless questions of ecclesiastical 
law , to destroy spirituality, weary souls, engender strife, 
breed jealousv, stimulate unhallowed ambition ; more than 
all, to fatally insulate the assemblages from the reception 
and pervasion of the Holv Spirit ; but let them, on 
their coming, give themselves exclusively to prayer, praise 
and exhortation, interspersed with addresses from returned 
missionaries present, or with the reading of communica- 
tions from them on the field, recapitulating the work of 
the Grace of God on it. Having had the good time ; 

— There are two requisites for individuality of power and develop- 
ment, freedom and variety of situations. — Mill 011 Liberty. 



40 Societyism and its Evils. 

having been refreshed by the presence of the Holy Spirit 
in their individual hearts ; having seen their brethren in 
the flesh ; having joined hands, thanked God, and taken 
courage ; having their faith strengthened ; what remains 
for them but to go on their way home rejoicing to their 
respective churches and fields of labor; to communicate 
the good, the divine impulses they have received ; to come 
unto a higher plane in the divine life. If anything more 
is authorized by Scripture, and a sanctified common sense, 
let the authority be cited. 

THE REMAINING ALTERNATIVE. 

But, if it has been effectually and conclusively demon- 
strated, by the experiences of eighteen centuries, that this 
work cannot be adequately done by churches immediately 
or mediately through their committees or messengers — 
most rigidly restricted to do only what they are com- 
missioned to do \ if their efficient employment is hopeless; 
theii it is feared^ Christendom has been mistaken in sup- 
posing, that they were designed to continue permanent 
instrumentalities for the spread of the Gospel to the end of 
time, — not merely a temporary arrangement for the purpose 
during the apostolic era. 

There is only one escape from this conclusion, as is 
seen, and that is, in enlarging the interpretation of the 
Christian ecclesia, if facts and philology will allow, as to 
include any assembly of Christian believers, near or afar, 
baptized or unbaptized, who have been drawn together by 

— In the human mind, one-sidedness has always been the rule, and 
many-sidedness the exception. Hence, even in revolutions of opinion, 
one part of the truth usually sets, while another rises. — Mill on 
Liberty. 



The Remaining Alternative. 41 

the common love of Jesus, and by the affinities of religious 
tastes and opinions, for the spread of the Gospel, at home 
or abroad; and, consequently, for their individual develop- 
ment and growth in grace. In such a comprehending 
sense, every Young Men's Christian Association would be 
a Christian church, and would be bound by the precepts 
prescribed for its regimen and conduct in ecclesiastical 
life. It might require, on admission, assent to certain 
expressed fundamental principles of belief, or to the teach- 
ings of Jesus Christ undefined, and to a covenant — oral 
for each time, or verbally prescribed \ it might labor with 
and discipline unworthy members ; it might celebrate the 
memorial Supper as the silent sacr amentum of allegiance 
to their Master. By the same enlarged apprehension of 
the New Testament Ideal and Real; an Association, a State 
Convention, a National Conference might be a Christian 
church or assembly, — being constituted and regulated by 
the same inspired directions, — reminding themselves, from 
time to time, of their perpetual obligations to Jesus, by 
the same memorial observance. Upon such an exegesis, all 
such assemblies might, properly, be held to be Christian 
churches, and undertake to execute the Gospel commis- 
sion, in sending out missionaries from their numbers, and 
in sustaining them ; but remembering to limit themselves, 
as did the brethren of the church at Antioch, with regard 
to Paul and Silas, "giving them over to the grace of 
God ;" and they would be bound, in all their procedures, 
by the principles and prescriptions for the constitution and 

— If all mankind, minus one, were of one opinion, and only one 
person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more 
justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, 
would be justified in silencing mankind. — Mill on Liberty. 



42 Society ism and its Evils, 

regimen of such bodies of Christ, — the New Testament 
ecclesiae. Assuredly, then, all such distinctions and clas- 
sifications of life or annual members upon the payment of 
specified amounts of money ; all odious and unscriptural 
assumptions and seclusions of positions of power and 
trust; all principles and practice of close corporations; 
all unnecessary Boards, Executive Committees, and Secre- 
taryships ; all aristocratic, class, and anti-democratic 
features would cease to exist and to be employed in the 
Lord's service. The missionary being commended, given 
over to the grace of God ; there would be no more for 
these assemblages to do, than to create interest on his 
behalf, and in his mission ; to raise funds for his and its 
support; to pray for him ever, and to send him, often, as 
they had opportunity, words of cheer. All this would be 
enough to occupy their time and attention, — to develop 
and absorb their Christian zeal and energy. " Ye know, 
that they which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles 
exercise lordship over them, and their great ones exercise 
authority over them : but so it shall not be among you ;. but, 
whosoever of you will be chiefest, shall be servant of all. 
For even the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, 

In truth, all great actions are solitary ones. All the great works of 
genius come from deep, lonely thoughts. The writings which have 
quickened, electrified, regenerated the human mind, did not spring 
from associations. That is most valuable which is individual; which 
is marked by what is peculiar and characteristic in him who accom- 
plishes it. In truth, associations are chiefly useful by giving means 
and opportunities to gifted individuals to act out their own minds. A 
missionary society achieves little good, except when it can send forth 
an individual who wants no teaching or training from the society, but 
who carries his commission and chief power in his own soul. 

Dr. Charming. 



Societies Transient — Churches Perpetual. 43 

but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many." 
Mark x: 42 — 45 ; Luke xxii : 25. And this decisive and 
emphatic utterance of Him — the recognized infallible 
Teacher of all, is deemed elucidatory of, and conclusive 
upon, the whole subject. 

But the question remains, can such bodies, upon incon- 
trovertible exegesis, be held to be churches in Gospel 
order? More light is needed to break forth from God's 
Word to convince some that they could be thus regarded. 

SOCIETIES TRANSIENT — CHURCHES PERPETUAL. 

Churches, it is said, change, are revolutionized, die. 
On what, or on whom, can the missionary rely, after the 
lapse of years? 

Whether, are the most enduring, which have passed 
through the conflicts of eighteen centuries ; against which, 
as fore-declared, the Gates of Hell should not prevail ; 
or those, which are changeable as is public opinion, and 
which, by the measure of the centuries, have been tran- 

All organic development is a change from a state of homogeneity to 
a state of heterogeneity. 

The multiplication of sects, the preaching that identity of 

opinion should not be the bond of union, — the universal tendency to 
separate thus exhibited, is simply one of the ways in which a growing 
assertion of individuality comes out. Ultimately, by continued subdi- 
vision, what we call sects will disappear ; and in place of the artificial 
uniformity, obtained by stamping men after an authorized pattern, there 
-will arise one of nature's uniformities — a general similarity, with 
infinitesimal differences, .... that condition in which the individual- 
ity of each may be unfolded, without limit, save the like individuality of 
others; that condition toward which, as we have just seen, mankind 
are progressing; is a condition towards which the whole creation 
tends. — Social Statics. Herbert Spencer. 



44 Societyism and its Evils. 

sient ; developing in antagonism to the simplicity of the 
Gospel, and, running in their seed to corruption, as they 
always will ; reconstructed, but to come again to be unsat- 
isfying and impracticable ; never able to retain to their 
end, the confidence of the people represented. 

Churches die. Yes, they do, — as races die, and are 
swept into oblivion. " One generation passeth away, and 
another generation cometh : but the earth abideth forever." 
Many of them have survived successive dynasties of the 
nations out of whom they were gathered. The line of their 
succession has been unbroken. The children of the mother 
have found a name and place, somewhere, in every Chris- 
tian century. As Continental rivers disappear sometimes 
beneath the surface — to re-appear in some distant locality, 
so churches have disappeared to be visible again, through 
the nucleus of some wandering son or daughter in some 
section of the earth. Thus it has ever been. Societies 
are of modern origin. They have been reconstructed. 
They have always wasted power in the necessary and 
unavoidable friction; — absorbed, disproportionately, funds 
for the divine end, in the running gear of means. Though 
the excellent of the sects have been prominent in their 
management and direction, they have been commonly 
officered and wielded, as have been old insurance. offices, 
by men of a past generation, who had failed in everything 
else they had previously undertaken ; men, who, pedantic 
and self-sufficient, if not self-seeking, could not discern 
the signs of the future ; or, if they did, obstinately refused 
to profit by the vision, and to take a new departure \ men 
who did not keep step with Providence, because they 
were too busy in the conservation of machinery ; as if the 
evangelization of the world could not be wrought without 



Societies Transient — Churches Perpetual. 45 

its preservation ; men who clung with the tenacity of 
death to their policies and places; till, Society having 
advanced, laggard Christendom itself many a league; 
these professedly pioneers in the world's redemption w r ere 
left behind, forced to their dissolution or reconstruction. 

What days are these ! What enterprises ! What ener- 
gies and activities ! It's time for the people of God to be 
up and doing. It's time for Christian men to have con" 
fidence in their Master, to cease leaning to their own 
understanding, and, to trust in the living God. 

Individuals and churches change, are revolutionized, and 
die. Yes, and the missionary himself might die a thousand 
times, ere they would, who sent him out, — pledged to 
remember, to pray for, and to materially sustain him. This 
work, on which the Christian embarks, is not one of cal- 
culation, as men ponder whether they shall succeed in this 
or that material enterprise ; cold, material calculation is 
against all spiritual success ; but purely one of Faith, with 
the pledge of all the forces and potencies of Omnipotence 
to guide, sustain, and to lead to ultimate triumph, — not 
demonstrable on the surface, or visible to the naked eye ; 
but, as God is true, to be realized. It must come at last, 
and, to be recognized as wholly this one of Faith, though 
the undertaking was inaugurated with the acclaim and 
" GoD-speed " of millions, and pushed on with the treasures 
of earth. 

Individuals and churches die. Yes. But God does not. 
Nor He that shall sit on the White Throne. Nor the 
spirits of the Just made perfect ; nor Angels, nor Princi- 
palities, nor Powers ; nor all the seen and unseen poten- 
cies of God Almighty; nor have, even, apostolic successors, 
— those weak things of the world, which God hath chosen 
to confound the mighty. 



46 Society ism and its Evils. 

Sufficient unto the day.- — Why take ye thought for the 
morrow? u O, ye of little Faith"! Cannot the mis- 
sionaries and their friends trust God ? — If they be His 
children, they will be driven to it at the last. He will 
take away all their props, bring to nought all their confi- 
dences, prove vain all their earthly reliances, and swing 
them out into the eternities of Faith to be supported. 
To such extremity every chosen soul will be brought at 
last, whether in the working out of its individual rescue, or in 
that of others through Christ. Then, when naked, defence - 
less, trusting and trustful, it will prevail. As it is with 
the individual, so it will be with the Ci two or three," or 
more united in His name ; having Faith, and, in His 
means, they shall triumph. 

How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord, 
Is laid for your Faith in His excellent Word ! 
What more can He say than to you He hath said, 
Who unto the Saviour for refuge have fled ? 

The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose, 

I will not, I will not desert to his foes ; 

That soul, though all Hell should endeavor to shake, 

I'll never, — no, nearer, — no, never forsake! 



APPENDIX. 



" The growing and tremendous energy with which certain of these 
combinations have brought their associated influence to bear on private 
character and rights, and on the interests of individuals, to their preju- 
dice, for having used the right of private judgment, not in opposing, 
but simply for not falling in with and abetting these plans, when in any 

case they have seemed to be of questionable utility Nobody 

feels it his duty to oppose, for the cause is good ; every one believes, 
because every body does; credit in all statements goes by authority, 
not by conviction " 

" It is reasonable and philosophical to conclude, that a man of the 
purest spirit* might enter as a leader and governor into the service of 
these societies, and, in five years time, turn out a managing, skilful 
politician in that specific province. From the love of doing good, he 
may have passed entirely to the desire of power and influence, and be 
principally occupied in contrivances peculiar to the policies of earth. . ." 

" The process of corruption .... in these high officers, and in the 
societies under their control, is always gradual. The men come into 
these places ordinarily under the influence of very pure designs ; . . . 
. . . they are transplanted from a circumscribed to a wide sphere of 
action and influence; .... they are ever concerting schemes for the 
attainment of their objects; the economy of social organization for 
these purposes becomes a study, and themselves adepts ; practice 
makes perfect; . . . . they attain, finally, not only a high, commanding 
position in society, but an almost unlimited influence; and "who," 
think they, at last, " can govern the world better than we? . . . we 
think it will be safest in our hands." And they set themselves about 
it, on the principle that all men have a right to that influence which 
they can command. They have no scruples ; they have found out that 
the world must be governed by a few ; that it is all effected by schem- 



48 Appendix. 

ing ; that perfect honesty and openness are inconsistent with such an 
art, and impolitic ; that the secrets of government must be in the 
keeping of governors ; that the wide public are to be informed only on 
points which concern them to know, and as they may be convenient 
instruments of power; that, in view of rival institutions, sects, or par- 
ties, all plans are to be formed and executed on principles of policy ; 
and policy becomes, at last, the reigning principle. In spite of them- 
selves, they and their work are transformed ; they are not the things 
they were when they first set out. It is the unavoidable, the irresistible 
tendency of such organizations in such relations. It can no more be 
prevented than the course of nature, because it is identical with that 
course. These men will as necessarily become ambitious and aspiring, 
grasping at power and loving to wield it, and will as certainly scheme 
for themselves, as the infant will come to be a man ; and observing 
the scope, and feeling the motives, of the wide field before him, will 
make the most of it. ... A few .... societies, with a few men at 
their head, govern this land in all that relates to our moral and religious 
interests ; . . . such is the ascendancy of their influence, that their will 
is irresistible. It is a revival of Jesuitism adapted to our time and 

circumstances, no man can openly oppose them without the 

risk of being crushed by their influence. Their eyes are everywhere ; 
they see and understand all movements ; and not a whisper of discon- 
tent can be breathed, but that the bold remonstrant will feel the weight 
of their displeasure. The whole community, on whom they rely, are 
marshalled and disciplined to their will . . . . " Is thy servant a dog 
that he should do such a thing ? " Men do not know what they will 
do when they shall have acquired influence, and, therefore, it is never 
safe to intrust them with power beyond what is necessary for the best 
ends of society " 

"Jesus Christ gave a commission to a select society, by the princi- 
ples of which, in their hands, and through their instrumentality, 
accompanied by the efficacious grace of the Holy Spirit, He designed 
to bring the world in subjection to Himself." 

" The plan and organization of modern Protestant missions are to a 
great extent defective, and require to be corrected and placed upon the 
basis of the primitive commission for the conversion of the world . . 
. . the church of Christ, as a society, in its own proper organization, 



Appendix. 49 

is the only and the very society, under the commission given by Jesus 
Christ, which He has authorized to be employed by His professed 
disciples for the reformation of morals and manners in the world, and 
for the gradual and ^ultimate subjection of all mankind to the laws 
and principles of the Bible. . . . Christians of our day are disregard- 
ing the law of Christ, and running into multiform associations of a 
purely extemporaneous character, detracting from and annihilating the 
appropriate influence of the church, and intrusting powers in the hands 
of small associations of individuals, which, till human nature shall be 
greatly improved, cannot fail to tempt them to tread in the footsteps of 
the Jesuitical school, as far as they can conveniently go without being 
the objects of suspicion .... a power so all-pervading, and so for- 
midable, that nothing, apparently, but some special interference of 
Providence, can arrest its overwhelming career. It has literally bound 
the public mind of this country in chains ; and there are few that will 
dare to think for themselves, or to speak what they think .... The 
press, with all its various powers, is ever active in the circulation of 
just such information as may suit the designs of those who govern all 
.... Are they aware that Christ has but one institution — one organ- 
ized society on- earth — and that is His church, — that He has designed 
and commissioned this institution to take the lead in the renovation 
of the world ? — that He has reserved the honors of these triumphs for 
this society alone ? — that all the zeal and all the moral power that has 
been thrown into these other and new organizations, so far as it is pure 
and good, might and ought to have been invested in the church, under 
her own proper forms, to give vitality and energy to her operations ? — 
and that this diversion is casting contempt on the Divine commission ? 
.... Everything of good that can be effected by these organizations 
could be done in the church ; .... it is setting up other institutions 
opposed to His; it is employing means which Christ has never 
authorized ; it is tasking human invention for novelties, in contempt of 
Divine appointments ; it is introducing a system of man's device, to 
the prejudice and weakening of God's commissioned agencies; it is 
tempting the servants of Christ by the allurements of power, and 
leading the hosts of God's elect into fields of political encounter, one 
against another, by creating a system of operations essentially political ; 
and the end of the whole is, that it degenerates into Jesuitical 



5° Appendix, 

maneuverings, and must necessarily bring a painful and calamitous 

catastrophe on the cause of Christianity There is no knowing 

what they will come to ; they have in them the elements of perpetual 
change and of usurpation ; those who are fortunate enough to get the 
lead may keep it, and do what they please, until, peradventure, they 
shall have got to the end of their race by some public exposure of their 
misdoings. AlFhistory shows that societies of this class are unsafe; 
at the head of which the first Jesuitical organization of the sixteenth 
century is a notable and admonitory example. ..." 

" By the existence of these societies, . . . the church is necessarily 
prevented from acting in this field as a church. Her commission is 
usurped, and her duties transferred. ... It cannot be supposed that 
Christ has given to His church a defective commission ? And, if 
any body of Christians calling themselves a church should find them- 
selves deficient in this particular, it behooves them to inquire whether 
they are properly organized ; whether they are upon the true founda- 
tion ; whether, indeed, they are acting under the primitive and Divine 
commission." — Protestant Jesuitism. Harper Bros. 

An Eastern correspondent of The Advance, the Chicago Congrega- 
tional paper, thus refers to the form of the popular mission ary 
organizations : 

"This form is, first, to have a Society, consisting of some thousands of 
members created by donations of twenty dollars each. But the Society 
never meets, and in the nature of the case can't meet. And if even, 
under some excitement, it tries to meet, as in the case of the N. Y. 
Tract Society, the country members find that the room has been packed 
by the New York city Ring, or, as in the case of the Bible Society, 
that all remarks and motions are ruled out of order by the chair, as a 
security against agitators. Next in rank is a Board of Directors, sup- 
posed to be responsible to the Society which never meets, but really a 
close corporation filling its own vacancies, by a sham election of the 
Society. Even of the Board of Directors, the majority are dummies, 
who rarely or never attend the meetings, but whose names and titles 
are wanted * for glory and for beauty ; ' so that practically the Society 
is run by the Secretaries and a little handful of advisers. If now you 
add what to my knowledge is common law in one of these corporations, 



Appendix. 5 1 

— that each Director is held to be under a sort of Masonic obligation 
to divulge no abuse in the corporation, however grave, under penalty 
of " ostracism " — you have as comfortable a nest for hatching of cor- 
ruptions as could well be contrived. 

We have, centered at New York, a great series of societies con- 
structed after the model of the Bible Society, the only constitutional 
check upon whose managers is in an annual public meeting to hear 
their reports and elect their successors. This public meeting of the 
society is not held. In the nature of the case it cannot be held. Each 
Board of Directors is one of the closest of close corporations, and one 
of the most odious, for it is an irresponsible, self-perpetuated body 
under the false pretense of being elected by a great constituency, and 
accountable thereto. When abuses are discovered, the pressure of the 
corporate influence to keep them hushed up is too strong to be whole- 
some. I have known the case of one of the most prominent of these 
societies, in whose Board of Directors it was held that there was a sort 
of Masonic obligation on the part of an individual Director to keep secret 
an abuse which he was unable to get remedied in the Board ; and a 
combined attempt was made to enforce this obligation by social and 
other penalties. 

But I ask, whether it would be possible for the foolishest of the chil- 
dren of light, to contrive a form of organization better fitted to engender, 
conceal and maintain abuses, than the one commonly adopted for our 
large charities? A little history of the working of them for fifty years, 
would contain many sad illustrations of this matter. 

The question is, what should be done about it ? In the course of 
time, there will have to be a complete reconstruction." 

Another correspondent of the same paper contributes the following : 

" How is the A. H. M.S. governed? If I understand it, there must 
be some six hundred thousand members of the society. 

The payment of a hundred dollars constitutes a Life Director. 

Honesty in paying over a bequest of a thousand dollars, without 
stealing it, also constitutes a Life Director ! 

The six hundred thousand members assemble annually in (Stein- 
way's Hall, N. Y. !) and there select a President; any number of Vice 



xsr 



5 2 Appendix. 

Presidents, Treasurer, Auditor, four Secretaries, and fifty Directors, in 
addition to a multitude of Life Directors who have paid for their ofhce. 
The number of Life Directors is so large that the catalogue is too 
expensive to publish. From fifty to a hundred are appointed each 
year. 

The elected Directors (50), and the paid-for Life Directors (say 
1,000, or more), together with the officers (about 50), constitute a 
Board. The quorum of this august and numerous body is, seven 
members ! (i. e. upon occasion, six paid officers and one director — an 
honest executor, perhaps, may constitute a quorum !) 

This Board then meets and elects an Executive Committee of four- 
teen, with whom the authority of the whole concern is lodged. Of 
these fourteen, five are paid officers, and the rest must reside in or near 
New York. 

Let us illustrate by a supposed case : 

There are, say, six millions of citizens of the Union by birth. 

Any foreigner, by paying a small sum of money can become a 
citizen, or for a moderate amount, a Congressman for life. Any citizen 
can buy a seat in Congress for life at the same price. In consequence 
there are, say, 10,000 Congressmen for life. 

On the 10th of May annually, the Nation meets in the Senate 
chamber at Washington and elects, in addition to the 10,000, three 
hundred annual Congressmen, and a President, and other annual 
officers. 

The three hundred, in addition to the 10,000, and the annual officers, 
constitute a Board. 

The function of this Board is to elect a cabinet (of which the annual 
officers are ex- officio members) who fill their own vacancies and — 
govern the country ! 

Here's equal representation for you, and a simple scheme of 
government. 

Yet such a system, if we do not misunderstand the constitution, is 
that which we call the American Home Missionary Society, — a system 
in which the vast membership has really no more voice than in the 
government of Russia. 

That it has not killed itself long ago, is due to Divine grace alone. 
Is it not time, that some steps were taken to reduce this huge and 
cumbrous farce to something like reason and order ? " 



r^w^v^ 



fe 



-r 



^ 



'■%i 



®+ 










OCIETYISM 



Ind tfe f mis. 



THE INSTRUMENTALITY 



Individuals a^d Chtjeohes 



THE WORLD'S EVANGELIZATION. 



BY A CHICAGOAN. 



CHICAGO: THE WESTERN NEWS COMPANY. 

NEW YORK: SHELDON & COMPANY. 

1871. 



t 






Bt/ie>7, 



W#s 







^lifcS 


yUlLnfB 


AA 








r*, 






A(\a\ a" 


*k 


*' 


uwmAtr»«y>TJ 


kirn 




H*2 


Mff 



'%^ n ^.#. 



SftjSfi^ 



,'MftAn; 






■*A£ ' 



^£u«r\£®^«'? 



o *a a ! ' • - r 



Af\fofc&cs, 









m$*fa®& 









XKtt^Ms 



wmmmmM 



mm 



M^Ml^l^MM^^o^M&^&f^M 



rnmmmmmm 



fysc$*p ^toa 






A . 'Vft&'i-JA'&I" 



M*^^ 









te/&J*fl£M: 






lO^P 






MfeM 



'm^Mm 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: Sept. 2005 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township. PA 16066 
(724)779-2111 












^SMSi 









iisliii«il 









■ . ^^'h.y 






: aA- A * ; - ; "^ * 



t^WWWM 



msm®^ 






MH$ 






a ' ^ a ; ' 















,SM»tf 



imm^Mw- 



Aaa I^A^Air « --. "' L 



